


Just A Spoonful

by Meatball



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, M/M/M/M, Makoto Birthday Exchange for Procrastinators, Marinka - Freeform, Prompt Fic, These are not the babies you are looking for, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-11-18
Packaged: 2018-05-02 04:07:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5233487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball/pseuds/Meatball
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three Men and a Baby</p><p> </p><p>It's 2024. Haru and Rin are finally retiring from pro swimming. Makoto retired a few years before. The threesome and Sousuke all live together in a deluxe apartment in the sky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just A Spoonful

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WhyTheHandbasket](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyTheHandbasket/gifts).



> I hope I've done you (and your babies) justice, Ms. Basket.

**Friday, November 15, 2024**

“Woooow, Haru-chan! Look at all this work you've put into the place!” Nagisa gushes. He puts his shopping bags down on the kitchen counter and walks to the middle of the living room. He spins in a slow circle, taking in its entirety. “It's beauuuutiful!” His voice is almost a whisper.

“It truly is, Haruka,” Rei marvels next to Nagisa. He moves to the far wall, running his fingers on the outlines of the figures in the mural. “Iwatobi,” he mutters. He walks along the wall, words spilling quietly from his lips as the images change. “Nationals.” “Rio.” “Tokyo,” he smiles.  “Rome.” He takes his glasses off as he turns to Haru and wipes at his eyes. “You’ve chronicled everything. Your entire lives together. This is wonderful!”

“Thank you, Rei,” Haru smiles at him and examines his own work from his spot in the dining area. Sakura blossoms are interspersed throughout the mural, depicting the shared history between him and his friends, but more so with Rin, Makoto, and, to his own surprise, Sousuke, who had talked Makoto into trying out for the national team early on.

Nagisa joins Rei at the wall, in front of the spot where Haru had painted the 2020 Olympics. “I kind of wish Mako-chan didn’t decide to retire so soon,” he says, touching Makoto’s image. He is uncharacteristically quiet. “I bet he would have medaled this year.”

“He’s happy, Nagisa,” Haru walks over to him and wraps an arm around his shoulder reassuringly. “He was glad to have had the chance, you know. He didn’t even think he could. Or should, let alone twice.”

“I know. But you know me and my wishing.” Nagisa grins. “Thank god for Sou-chan, huh?” He turns his grin to Haru, who simply hums in agreement.

Thank god for Sousuke, indeed. Haru might never have found the drive to join Rin in his Olympic dreams if Sousuke didn’t help with the push. Not that Sousuke couldn’t have done it with less...intimidation, but it’s all turned out well in the end. And to top it all off, Sousuke somehow managed to get Makoto to see his own talent, sending him, Haru, and Rin to the Olympics.

Haru has never really said it much out loud, but the three of them owe quite a bit to Yamazaki Sousuke.

* * *

**October 2024**

Makoto leans back into the couch, pulling his knees tight against his chest and wrapping his arms around his long legs. He holds a tablet in one hand, reading the news for the morning.

_**Matsuoka Rin and Nanase Haruka Announce Retirement** _

“You guys are the lead story on the sports page today,” Makoto calls out from the living room. “Probably all over social media, too,” he adds. Sousuke, who had been poring over Rin’s latest contract on the couch next to Makoto, scoots over and peers over Makoto’s shoulder.

“Oh yeah?” Rin yells back from the kitchen. “Must be a slow news day,” he jokes as he walks in with a tray of drinks and snacks. He places the tray down on the coffee table and tries to coax Haru into joining them. “Hey, Haru. Take a break.”

Haru turns from his perch on the ladder, where he’d been making outlines of sakura branches and blossoms on the wall above the tall living room windows. “Just hand me the tea. I’m okay here.”

“Can’t a guy get a hug from his boyfriend?” Rin walks up to the ladder and presents Haru with an exaggerated pout. Almost immediately, Makoto and Sousuke both respond with, “I’m over here,” while Haru simply makes a kissyface at Rin, at the same time reaching down with the paintbrush and touching its tip to Rin’s nose. Rin kisses the air back at Haru, ignoring the black-brown smudge on his face. He walks back to the couch and touches his painted nose to the other two’s foreheads, giggling as Sousuke mutters his complaints and rubs it off.

“Boy, they _really_ want you to settle down, don’t they?” Makoto asks, still reading. “‘Perhaps now that he doesn’t have his tight training schedule,’” Makoto quotes the article. “‘Matsuoka-san might finally have the time to find his _one true match._ ’” Makoto and Sousuke share a small laugh.

“And I keep _telling_ them I’m settled,” he grins at the three other men in the room. “It’s _their_ problem if they can’t tell who I’m settled with.”

Rin had come out publicly shortly before their second stint at the Olympics, prompting a small media storm as they try to figure out who his boyfriend is. Was it one of his teammates? Nanase Haruka, his professional rival? Tachibana Makoto, former teammate who always seems to be _just that close_ to him? Yamazaki Sousuke, his best friend and current agent? All childhood friends. All possible matches.

The answer is, of course, all of the above, but the press doesn’t have to know that. They all show just enough affection in public to leave people wondering. Besides, Sousuke had once said, it’s publicity, and now that Rin is going into modeling full-time, it’s even more important to keep the media talking. No one cares much these days whether or not they’re gay anyway. And at this point, it’s become somewhat of a fun game to keep them guessing.

Makoto closes the article on his tablet when Sousuke goes back to his own, checking over the specifics of Rin’s new sponsorship. They trade positions. This time, Makoto reads over Sousuke’s shoulder, but his attention quickly wanders off elsewhere as he thinks back to his own retirement from swimming four years earlier.

“...hey, wakey-wakey,” Sousuke’s quiet voice wends its way into his mind, interrupting his reverie. “You okay, Mako?”  
  
“Oh! Yeah. I’m fine,” he smiles warmly. “Sometimes I just get to thinking that maybe I retired too early.”

Makoto looks around and finds Rin gone and Haru engrossed in painting the mural on the apartment’s wall. Rin has a photo shoot today, he remembers, while Haru is finally in the midst of the project he’s wanted to do for this place since they moved in three years back. It’s just him and Sousuke right now.

“Do you think you did?” Sousuke asks.

Makoto looks at the images that Haru has outlined on the walls, focusing on the area that represents the 2016 Olympics.

“I owe you, you know,” he tells Sousuke, skipping the question. “I never would have tried for the Olympics if it wasn’t for you. You— You’re so driven. Sometimes, it’s like nothing stops you. I mean, look at you. You practically own that company already.” Sousuke sits quietly next to him, setting his work down on the coffee table. “Plus, you won’t let anything stop anyone else. I—,” Makoto lets out a breath. “Thanks, Sou.”

“I guess you’d have stopped me if you thought I was giving up, rather than moving on,” Makoto concludes. “No. It wasn’t too soon. I was ready. I was happy to have made it that far, when I didn’t even think I could.”

Sousuke places his arm around Makoto’s shoulders and Makoto leans his head into Sousuke. “I can see why you wouldn’t have,” Sousuke says. “Haru and Rin can be pretty intimidating.”

“That's saying something, coming from you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Makoto hesitates. “If your shoulder-,”

“Oh.”

“I'm sorry-,”

“Don't be,” Sousuke waves him off. “You know I'm long over that.”

Makoto nods. “It's just that you guys— ,” he glances up at Haru, who is still engrossed in his work. Makoto sighs. “ _You_ were pretty intimidating too. Even with your shoulder holding you back, you guys were already so far ahead of me...” he trails off, not really sure how else to explain himself.

“But you caught up, didn’t you?” Makoto looks up at Haru in surprise. He didn’t think Haru was paying any attention, but those blue eyes were practically boring holes into him now. “You really should give yourself more credit, Makoto. You might be the most persistent of all of us.” He turns back to painting without another word.

Sousuke squeezes Makoto into a half-hug before pulling his arm back and running his fingers through Makoto’s light brown locks. He says nothing else, only pulling Makoto closer to kiss the dried paint on his forehead before getting up to head to the office.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Sousuke finds Haru alone. “Mako’s birthday is coming up.”

“Yes.”

They share small conspiratorial smiles. Now they have to talk to Rin.

* * *

**Friday, November 15, 2024**

Sousuke takes half the day and comes home from work early to help Rin and Haru set up. It’s been a long week and he’s feeling somewhat run down, but now’s not the time to worry about that. There’s a party to finish putting together and the caterers will be here any minute.

He ties the last knot on the banner that screams, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAKOTO!” above the living room windows. “What do you think?” He asks Rei as he climbs down from Haru’s ladder.

“Perfect,” Rei replies.

Sousuke rolls his neck and shoulders to stretch the aches away before letting Rin and Haru know that the last of the decorations are up. Nagisa walks in from the hallway, guiding the caterers delivering the food for the evening. He grins at Sousuke. Makoto is going to flip out when he gets home.

* * *

“Oh, my god, you guys!” Makoto can scarcely believe the number of people they managed to fit into the apartment. Sure, it’s a penthouse apartment, and sure, it’s big to begin with, but this is still a lot of people.

He knew Nagisa and Rei were coming in for the weekend. Gou at least confirmed that much on their shopping trip today. The shopping trip that, as it turns out, was the distraction to keep him out of the apartment while they were filling it with people.

“We wanted to hang out with you since it’s your birthday!” she’d said. “We’ll meet them at your place and head out to dinner,” she’d said.

He’d figured out why she’d pestered him about dressing up for their day out when he got home to find the apartment packed. Tricksy Matsuokas.

Many of his former Olympic teammates are here, a couple of former coaches too. Old friends from high school and college. Some of the old Samezuka crew. The Mikoshibas. Kisumi. His siblings are here, his parents, Gou, Rin and Gou’s mother, and even Sousuke’s parents stop by to give him their birthday wishes. Haru’s parents are out of the country, but Haru hands him the phone sometime during the evening so they could wish him a happy birthday and catch up for a few minutes.

Over the course of the evening, Makoto mingles with the guests, each of them sharing some story or another about their adventures with him, from childhood to the Olympics and beyond.

“I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as this man does!”

“Makoto’s the kind of guy you just want to go out of your way for and feel guilty if you don’t, because you know he’d do just that for you, no questions asked.”

“He’s a great coach, man. He doesn’t push you. He pulls you along.”

“He’s one of the hardest working athletes I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with.”

“I bet Tachibana would have medaled this year if he didn’t retire!”

“My brother wants to be just like him.”

It’s a heady experience for Makoto, even setting aside the part where his drink is always topped off with more alcohol. Everyone has just been full of such nice things to say. Sure, it’s his birthday party and all, and everyone is probably just being nice, but he can’t help but feel the sincerity behind their words and his heart feels so much lighter.

He’s looking for his boyfriends in the crowd when the lights in the apartment turn low. He looks toward the kitchen where Rin, Haru, and Sousuke wheeling out a beautiful cake that Makoto guesses was made by Haru. It’s covered in candles, which casts the room in an ethereal glow. The guests sing him his birthday song and as soon as he blows his candles out, chants of “Speech! Speech!” start to rise up from the small mob.

“Um, first of all,” Makoto starts, feeling slightly awkward and unprepared. He feels a bit of heat rise in his cheeks. He clears his throat. “Um, you guys have been so great and kind and, ah, I wanna thank Rin and Haru and Sousuke for embarrassing me with this unending flow of sentiment.” The guests laugh. He’s not really sure what else to say, so he just opts to keep it short. “Ah, thanks for coming, everyone!”

At two in the morning, when the guests have gone, an exhausted Makoto’s boyfriends push him into the bedroom, insisting he go ahead and go to bed while they clean up.

“Get some rest, babe. We still have a weekend planned for you,” Rin tells him, a mischievous smile crossing his face as he closes the door to the bedroom.

* * *

Makoto’s eyes open wide and search the room for the alarm clock. Barely past eight in the morning. The other three had eventually crawled in with him last night, but a quick look around tells him that Rin’s already up and moving around, probably for a jog.

He’s insane.

Haru is curled up into Makoto, facing him, as is normal. Makoto plants a kiss on his head and looks behind Haru to see Sousuke on the other end of the bed, wrapped in the blanket.

Alcohol has always made Makoto wake up faster in the mornings and now that his eyes are open, he’s up. He rolls out of bed quietly and heads to the kitchen to start the coffee.

Haru joins him about thirty minutes later, groggy and unresponsive until he finishes his first cup. Makoto ruffles his hair and leaves him alone to wake up while he catches up on the news on his phone.

When Sousuke doesn’t get up by ten, Makoto starts to worry. Sousuke hardly ever sleeps in, and usually only when one of the others really wants a lazy day in bed. Makoto walks into the bedroom and finds Sousuke awake, staring at the ceiling. Sousuke coughs.

“Sousuke?” Makoto asks quietly. “Are you okay?”

Sousuke turns his eyes languidly to the door and coughs again. “Makoto,” he responds in a slightly raspy voice. “could you get me some water?”

“Sure! I’ll be right back.” _Aw, he’s got the sniffles,_ Makoto thinks to himself as he turns to head to the kitchen.

“And the cough syrup. Please,” Sousuke calls out behind him.

“Alrighty.”

Haru looks up from his breakfast and third cup of coffee when Makoto walks in. “What’s Sousuke still doing in bed?”

“Poor baby has a cold, it looks like,” Makoto catches him up. “He’s asking for water and cough syrup.”

Haru hums thoughtfully in response and sips on his coffee while Makoto grabs the water and medicine and brings them back to Sousuke. When Makoto comes back out, Haru has gotten up and started gathering ingredients on the counter, an empty pot waiting on the stove.

“Making him some stuff?” Makoto asks.

“Mm-hmm. Okayu should help him right out.”

Makoto nods. “Looks like weekend plans are cancelled, though.”

Haru turns his head and smiles apologetically. “Guess so, huh? Sorry, Mako,” he says before turning back to his cooking.

“Mm-mm,” Makoto shakes his head as he sits down at the counter, placing his phone on the hard surface. “Last night was plenty,” he reassures Haru. “Besides,” he continues, “I figured the birthday sex wasn’t until later anyway.”

Haru turns around completely, looking at him wide-eyed. Makoto grins, waggling his eyebrows, finally laughing when Haru squints at him and smiles.

“Hey, where’s Rin?” Makoto asks. “I thought maybe he went out for a run but he’s been gone all morning.”

“Had a shoot today. Did you forget?”  
  
“Huh,” Makoto checks his calendar. It’s right there, in Rin’s designated light magenta: _Photo shoot - Ties._ “Guess so. He’s not back until dinner. I’ll text him and let him know that Sousuke’s under the weather.”

Makoto fires off the message to Rin, with additional others for Gou, Nagisa, and Rei to postpone any weekend plans for another time. With his tasks done, Makoto sits in bed with Sousuke to keep him company while Haru finishes cooking. Makoto smiles sympathetically, stroking Sousuke’s dark hair while he whines at his condition.

“We still had other plans for you today, Mako,” he rasps then groans as he rolls onto his back.

“I already told Haru it’s fine. You guys don’t have to do anything else for me.” Makoto kisses his forehead. “You just get some rest, okay?”

Sousuke grunts as Haru walks in with a tray of the okayu and a glass of juice, insisting on feeding Sousuke himself.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you sick. Injured, but not sick,” Haru says. “Let me take care of you.”

“Okay, fine,” Sousuke relents, but pouts anyway. “Is that- that’s mackerel, isn’t it?”

“It has iron. It’s good for you,” is all Haru says to him before shoving a spoonful into his mouth.

* * *

With Sousuke medicated, fed, and tucked in, Haru and Makoto leave him to get back to sleep. Makoto finally gets a reply back from Rin mid-afternoon, letting them know that the shoot ended early and he’s on his way home.

 **Rinrin  
** _What’s Sousuke doing?_

_He’s asleep._

**Rinrin  
** _Good. Leave him alone. It’s just a cold, right?_

_Looks like it._

**Rinrin  
** _Okay. Whatever you do, don’t give in to his shit._

_What?_

**Rinrin**  
_Just trust me. I’ll be home in a bit._

Makoto shows Haru the conversation and they stare at the phone, confused. Haru shrugs, heading back to the room with another tray of juice and okayu for the patient.

Rin walks into the apartment half an hour later with a small bag of medicine, a couple of containers of soup, and bottles of water and juice. He sets them down on the counter, careful to be quiet.

“Is he asleep?” he mouths to Haru and Makoto, who are cuddled under a blanket on the couch, watching a movie. Makoto nods and pulls up a side of the blanket, inviting Rin to join them.

“Look,” Rin whispers to the other two as he crawls into the blanket. “Sousuke hardly ever gets sick. Practically _never._ ” His voice is...urgent.

Makoto and Haru turn their attention from the TV to Rin. However it is that Rin is trying to say what he’s saying, they are compelled to listen.

“But, oh, _my god_ , when he is. Do not — whatever you do — do _not_ let him bully you into babying him.”

“I don’t understand, Rin,” Makoto whispers back. “He’s been fine all day.”

“Oh, no,” Rin warns. “No, no, no. He hasn’t even _begun._ ”

As if on cue, a coughing echoes from the master bedroom, followed by a small whine. “Haru? Could I get another blanket?”

Haru gets up on command and heads for the linen closet before Rin can stop him. “Haru, no-,”

“Dammit,” Rin mutters, getting out of their shared blanket. He grabs the small shopping bag from the counter and follows Haru into the bedroom. Curious, Makoto trails right behind him.

Sousuke rolls over on the bed and groans as Haru tucks another blanket around him, the third one he’s asked for today. He smiles at Haru gratefully before fixing his gaze on Rin and the bag in his hand.

“Rin,” he sniffs. “How was the shoot?”

“It was good,” Rin replies, sudden sweetness in his voice. “We finished a little early so I thought I’d take you guys out to eat tonight, but these two said you were feeling a little under the weather so I picked up some stuff for you.” Rin places the bag on the nightstand and runs his fingers quickly through Sousuke’s hair. “You get some sleep. We’re just gonna go out for some ramen down the street, okay?”

Sousuke is quiet for a moment, before muttering a small, “Okay” in response. Makoto watches the exchange but sees nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, he’d say that Rin hasn’t done anything that constitutes “not taking any of his shit” at all.

He asks Rin about it over ramen.

“I didn’t say be heartless, Mako. I said ‘don’t let him bully you.’ What have you guys been doing with him all day anyway?” he asks in return.

Makoto shrugs. “Nothing out of the ordinary. Gave him meds, tucked him in. Haru made him some okayu, but outside of Haru feeding him himself, nothing weird.”

“You _fed him yourself?_ ” Rin turns wide eyes in Haru’s direction, his voice an incredulous loud whisper. “He’s a grown man, Haru! He practically runs that agency. It’s a cold! Sousuke can feed himself!”

“He looks so miserable, though,” Makoto defends Haru.

“He _is_ miserable,” Rin shoots back. “But only because he gets sick maybe once every two years, if that.”

“Look,” he continues. “He’s going to keep whining for drugs and blankets and juice. Give him what he needs but don’t _fucking_ spoil the baby or you’ll just get wrapped up around his little finger and believe you me, you’re going to regret it.”

“I can’t just do that, Rin!” Makoto responds, slightly horrified. “I practically owe the last ten years of my life to Sousuke. The least I can do is take care of him when he’s sick.”

“Mako, I know it’s your birthday weekend and everything, but just-,” Rin sighs against the wall that is Makoto’s determined face. “Fine,” he leans back and raises his hands in defeat. “Don’t fucking blame me when _you’re_ miserable.”

At Haru’s suggestion — demand, really — they bring home some ramen for Sousuke. “Since he couldn’t come with us,” he says.

Haru plates up the ramen in one of their bowls and once again, brings in the tray to Sousuke. Rin watches him from the living room, rolling his eyes. “Don’t you fucking feed him yourself, Haru,” he warns in a loud whisper.

“I didn’t spoonfeed him,” Haru says when he rejoins them in the living room to finish the movie they’d abandoned earlier. “Just kept him company. He’s going back to sleep.”

* * *

Makoto spends his 27th birthday playing Nurse-Mom to a pitifully sick patient. Haru helps him at every turn, no questions asked except for Sousuke’s benefit, whereas Rin does so begrudgingly. Sousuke, whose illness has progressed, only gets up to use the bathroom. No shower. No bath. Haru handles this issue by bringing in a basin of hot, soapy water and giving him a sponge bath, responding to Rin’s scolding by throwing him murderous looks to scare him off.

While he is only too glad to care for Sousuke, by the end of the day, Makoto finds himself starting to question the wisdom of his actions. His doubts reach a peak when, that night, the cold medicine’s antihistamine doesn’t work fast enough to help Sousuke sleep and Sousuke moans for Makoto to sing him a song. Makoto regrets telling Rin about it.

“He asked you for a fucking lullaby,” was Rin’s flat response, not even bothering to hide the disdain on his face.

The three not-sick men sleep in one of the spare rooms together, so as to keep themselves as germ-free as possible. Rin and Haru have a profile interview scheduled for Monday at lunch with one of the premier sports magazines in the country. They’d rather not have to reschedule. Makoto, at least, can afford to take a day or two. It helps when you’re pretty much your own boss. Or when your boss is the sick patient you’re nursing.

Monday morning rolls around and things are, for the most part, just about normal again. Sousuke takes the day off but is starting to feel better, finally asking for something more than just mackerel-rice porridge and juice or water. He still sounds like a frog lives in his throat but Makoto is glad to see that his spirits have improved. Makoto sends Haru and Rin off to their interview, promising them dinner. Rin and Haru share a look.

“I’m _not_ going to burn the building down. Jesus, guys.” Makoto rebukes the two, hustling them out the door with hugs and kisses. “And Sou’s feeling better. I’ll make him help.” Rin and Haru seem placated enough for them to head out.

“Send them off on their interview?” Sousuke croaks at him from the other end of the hall. He’s looking much better. Freshly showered too, apparently.

“Yeah,” Makoto gives him a small smile. “Wanna join me for lunch?”

* * *

“Oh, my god, these interviewers wanted to know _everything,_ ” Rin grouses, slicing off a piece of steak — medium-rare — and shoving it into his mouth.

“But,” he goes on. “These two were actually somewhat perceptive enough to imply we were all sleeping together.”

Both Makoto and Sousuke nearly choke on their food with the knowing laughter that comes out.

“So did you say anything?” Sousuke asks when he finally recovers.

“Pff, no, of course not,” Rin replies. “I like to keep a little mystery to myself, thank you,” he adds dramatically.

“Thanks for dinner, Sousuke,” Haru says quietly, taking a bite of his grilled mackerel.

“No worries. I owe you guys for taking care of my sorry ass over the weekend,” Sousuke sniffs. “I know I’m a bit of a baby when I get sick.”

Makoto smiles, pulling the small crème brûlée Sousuke made for him towards himself. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, Sou,” he says, reaching down and squeezing a knee. “You heading back to work tomorrow?”

Sousuke nods. “I had to cancel a few important things today. Got some catching up to do.”

They all turn in early, Rin claiming exhaustion from the interview earlier, Makoto and Haru just being tired from the long weekend, and Sousuke still in recovery. They still sleep in separate rooms, just in case. Things should be back to normal tomorrow.

* * *

Tuesday morning is a gorgeous fall day. Sousuke is refreshed, finally. He hates being sick, as rarely as it happens. He always feels more helpless than even when he’d had his shoulder surgery.

He walks out into the kitchen, finding none of the others awake. He backtracks to the spare rooms, finding all of them huddled together in the king-sized bed in the second room. Makoto stirs.

“Good morning,” Sousuke whispers, walking in.

Makoto, sandwiched between the other two, opens an eye, groans, and rolls over. Haru huddles closer to him.

“Sou…,” Rin whines from the other side of the bed and coughs. “Could you get me some water?”

Sousuke walks back into the kitchen and puts water, juice, and cough syrup on the serving tray. He texts his assistant, letting him know that he’ll be taking the rest of the week off.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I found some accidental SouHaru. What.
> 
>  
> 
> I accept drugs over at [the Tumbly place.](http://idontevenswim.tumblr.com)
> 
> (No. No, I don't. MJ is legal here. And I buy my own cough meds, thanks.)


End file.
